“I am loath to call clemency what was, rather, the exhaustion of cruelty.”

“We should every night call ourselves to an account; What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.”

“I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land.”

“Why do I not rather seek some real good - one which I could feel, not one which I could display? These things that draw the eyes of men, before which they halt, which they show to one another in wonder, outwardly glitter, but are worthless within.”

“It is the quality of a great soul to scorn great things and to prefer that which is ordinary rather than that which is too great.”

“I am not a ‘wise man,’ nor . . . shall I ever be. And so require not from me that I should be equal to the best, but that I should be better than the wicked. It is enough for me if every day I reduce the number of my vices, and blame my mistakes.”

“You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.”